What's in store for us in e-commerce and retail in 2018

Alexander Henss, Principal Consultant and retail expert at Namics, reveals what these are.

1. voice commerce: it's the added value that counts

They are small, respond to voice commands and are becoming the new digital everyday helper. We are talking about voice-controlled devices such as Amazon Alexa (Echo). They have developed significantly in recent years and are inspiring more and more users. One example of this is this year's Amazon Prime Day, when special products could only be ordered using the voice assistant. The result: an order was received via voice commerce every second.

If you want to benefit from this trend, you should integrate this type of commerce into your digital ecosystem. The decisive factor here is the development of value-added services that support and inspire the user. One approach to developing such services is service design: with a user-centered, analytical and interdisciplinary approach, it helps companies to design the services of tomorrow. This is essential, as individual and customized services are increasingly becoming the most important differentiating feature in the market.

2. customer centricity B2B: strengthening digital customer proximity

Customer centricity is already on the agenda of many B2C companies and is even seen as a decisive success factor for the future. B2B companies will also have to follow suit in 2018 - despite the immense challenges. This is because the much closer integration of (sales) processes and the high complexity of customer journeys make it more difficult to develop value-adding software systems, e-commerce solutions or applications.

However, investing in the digitalization of sophisticated services is worthwhile. For example, product configurators for capital goods open up a new point of contact with the company and, ideally, allow orders to be placed. Communication is also becoming increasingly digital and personal: a customer journey that starts in the customer portal is transferred to the customer relationship management system and continued digitally until the contract is concluded. This creates consistency and a 360-degree customer picture. Digital customer proximity and sustainable customer loyalty are the result.

3. virtual reality: new interaction possibilities revolutionize markets

Driving to the furniture store at the weekend is tedious and nerve-wracking. That's why pioneers like IKEA are turning to virtual reality (VR). With the "IKEA Place" app, you can add the desired furnishings to your living room at the touch of a button - in real time. This technological innovation takes the shopping experience to a new, digital level. What's more, companies are not only gaining a competitive edge, but can also increase their sales.

This example proves it: VR is more than just a gimmick. It can give entire sectors, such as the furniture market, a new boost. More and more retailers will therefore have to get to grips with it in the coming year. In e-commerce in particular, it offers numerous advantages - especially in terms of customer experience. Here, too, the following applies: those who inspire their customers and offer new opportunities for interaction will emerge as winners from the digital transformation.

4. new logistics concepts: An optimal customer experience right up to delivery

Whether at your neighbor's, at the post office or at the pick-up station - the positive customer experience often ends with delivery at the latest. What is so easy to find and buy online is now difficult to obtain in the offline world. In order to optimize this step in the customer journey, retailers need to develop new logistics concepts today and in the future. They need to provide customers with a consistently pleasant process.

The following approaches are particularly promising: Firstly, the Smart Pop-Up Boxes, which are delivered to your own car trunk or DB train station compartments. The second is mesh logistics, which enables fast delivery through automated processes. A good example of this is Zume Pizza. The company has its dishes produced by robots and delivers them in vehicles equipped with ovens. By calculating the route, it is possible to work out exactly when the oven needs to heat up in order to deliver a fresh and hot pizza. A third variant is self-driving delivery, i.e. delivery by drones or self-driving robots.